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NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Lifts Off
Joost Schuur writes "At 11:18 PM EDT on Monday, Opportunity, the second of 2 NASA Mars Exploration Rovers took off aboard a Boeing Delta 2 Heavy rocket after several delays and begun its 305 million mile trip to the Red Planet, where it will join its sister vehicle Spirit, which launched June 10th. Spirit and Opportunity will land on opposite sides of Mars, travelling up to 40 meters a day, and use a series of instruments to search for water, including the Rock Abrasion Tool, which will grind into rocks to give scientists a peak inside. Things are going to get crowded next January in orbit, as both NASA missions join the European Mars Express mission also launched this month and the Japanese Nozomi probe, which would finally complete its troublesome 5 year journey. Those stuck on Earth can take advantage of the closest Mars opposition in 60,000 years and watch with a telescope, or follow the images provided by the International MarsWatch 2003 group."
On the 7th of August there will we a Webcast on "Mars Exploration".
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planetary.org
Discovery.com
Some of the context is redundant, the first link is the most informative.
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I guess as the others pointed out, you were referring to Columbia and STS-107.
Actually I am pretty sure this mission has been in the books for quite sometime. Especially since Earth and Mars are supposed to be in the closest configuration with respect to their orbits. A trip to Mars right now will take approximately 7-8 months and the two rovers(Spirit and Opportunity) should get to Mars by January.
Also, its not just NASA which has used the current orbit position as an advantage; the European Space Agency(ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency(NASDA i think) have also launched their respective payloads to Mars.
About Venus, I doubt if NASA will come out with a program. A whole load of factors , not the least scientific goes into allocating budget to programs. And especially right now, I would think it would be really hard for NASA to convince the govt., to fund a program to Venus. The question of selling it to the public ranks high up there among the criteria and seems tough to me.
There are Venus missions under study now. The leading one is called the Venus In-Situ Explorer.
See http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/concepts.htm
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It is a problem, but at least they saw it coming. it's not only those craft, also a bunch of other important missions need a lot of attention, Cassini/Huygens, The cometchasers, et.c. are al nearing important phases of their mission. Last thing i read somewhere, it that they built an extra telesope (radio) in Spain (IIRC) So, it'l be a lot of juggling, and timing tings to the max but i guess they're ready for it. (well, let's hope so, Interplanetary /.ing wouldn't look too good, after al that work and money invested...
Mars is much more likely than Venus to have had life in the past. There are definite indications of water, past and present, and while life would be difficult on the surface, just underneath is a definite possibility.
There is virtually zero chance of life on the surface of Venus, and it's way too hot for any kinds of lakes other than, say, lead. Ammonia, which evaporates at room temperature even on Earth, is right out. However, there is a benign zone in Venus's upper atmosphere, deep enough to avoid nasty radiation from the Sun but high enough to be temperate, that might possibly host life.
Also remember that Spirit and Opportunity are going to opposite sides of the planet, so generally only one will use the DSN at a time.
When my family and I were visiting KSC a few weeks ago, to hopefully watch this launch :-( my wife pulled me over to a video screen that was playing a really well done simulation of the launch/flight/landing that underlined the elegance of the methods used for each stage of the trip to mars. It's really nice watching the various parts fall away and new goodies deploy for each part of the trip.
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After a quick search on the web once we got home, I found lesser quality versions of the film.
A couple are here:
http://athena.cornell.edu/the_mission/rov_video
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/video/anim
I think the animator's site had the best quality one, in MPEG. I think his name is Maas.
If you like eye candy, this is sort of a factually based minds-eye type video. I think it's really good CGI, but I'm no expert.
I'd read about the mission, and spinning the probe up for the big burn, and reeling out weights to spin down, etc, but it's not until I saw it on the screen, that the grace and elegance of all the solutions to the various problems of sending this probe to mars really hit me.
Seeing this film makes me feel good about paying my taxes.